Cooking up a storm

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  Yangshuo, Guangxi Zhuang, China
Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Although it didn't feel like it, Yangshuo was to be our last stop in China. I'd been looking forwards to coming here, because the activities on offer here, but I wasn't prepared for how beautiful the place was going to be. Set on a picturesque river, with green banks and a backdrop of limestone casks, it was the perfect place to end our trip. It was also great for shopping, with market stalls and shops lining all the main streets. We went to see 'Impression', a show created by the same man who designed the Olympic opening ceremony. It was unbelievable, it left us speechless. Set mainly on the river, with the limestone pinnacles as a backdrop, it was truly beautiful. Over 500 people perform in each show, which gives you some idea of the scale. The scenery was lit up sometimes as part of the show, or the lights were brought down as hundreds of people on boats and on foot, came into the scene with flames. Highlights had to be the hundreds of men with red ribbons creating huge waves and the huge line of people, zig-zagging into the set each wearing a suit of lights that made them look like a paper chain of people. It was something that had to be seen to be believed. And to think that I almost didn't go!

The next morning we had arranged for a man to come and show us some Tai Chi on the river front. We got up early to make the most of the morning cool, such as it was. It felt like we were doing Tai Chi in the way it was meant to be done. The man explained a lot about how Tai Chi uses principles of self-defense, which is something that I didn't know, it was really interesting. We learnt the first 6 movements, although I think I had a little advantage, having done Tai Chi a few times before! I can't say it changed my life, but it was pleasant. At the end our instructor showed us a few newspaper articles featuring himself, which was a little strange as he knew we couldn't read mandarin. Apparently he's a bit of a local celebrity around these parts though.

After Tai Chi, we hired some more bikes and headed off for a ride out of town. With all of the limestone pinnacles, it was really beautiful. We rode to a place called moon hill, which is a natural archway on top of a hill. I must have been too wrapped up in the idea of taking all the opportunities offered rather than thinking about what I was getting myself into when I decided it would be a good idea to walk up the hill with two of the group. I didn't really factor in the fact it was going to be really steep up-hill, and why exactly, did I need to put myself through that! It was one hell of a hike up, the fact all the steps were really slippy, didn't really help the situation. There was an impressive view on top, but we didn't have long to appreciate it as it started raining heavily almost as soon as we got up there, meaning I didn't really get many photos up there. It was too misty for them to come out. We made our way back down the precarious path slowly, the rain certainly didn't help the slippiness! The fact our obligatory hawker kept telling us to be careful didn't really help the matter either!

The next day we had the morning off for any last-minute shopping, or in my case, posting. A couple of us then went to a Chinese cooking course. Heading to the market first, we first walked through the vegetable section, where all sorts of weird and wonderful fruit and veg were shown and explained to us. We then went into the butchery section. There were the usual chickens there, but also the Chinese specialty of dog. It was really sad seeing all the dogs waiting their fate in cramped cages looking at their faces, it was as if they knew. It certainly wasn't pleasant walking through the butchery section. Our local chef didn't walk through as he doesn't like seeing it either.

The cooking course itself was great, we cooked 5 dishes in total, and were given the recipes for them to take home. The food we cooked was really great, and although I found the heating the oil up super hot, and cooking on the gas a little scary (one of my stranger fears along with steep downhill slopes!) it was pretty easy and very quick. I just hope I can recreate the dishes back home! We did the course with a lovely American father and daughter, and they took a few photos of us posing with the knives, as we did in return. It was a great few hours, and it was a shame we had to leave early to catch our bus and train to Hong Kong.

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